Monday, December 30, 2013

AAE promotes itself as The Association of American Educators (AAE)
is the largest national, non-union, professional educators'
organization, advancing the profession by offering a modern approach to
teacher representation and educational advocacy, as well as promoting
professionalism, collaboration and excellence without a partisan agenda.

However it is really the furthest thing from that. As Molly Beck points out:

While it markets itself as being without a political agenda unlike
teachers unions, the American Association of Educators gets significant
funding from conservative-leaning foundations and often advocates for
school choice and publicly rejects what it calls “forced unionism.”

Some teachers just wanted a “have really been searching for a less politically charged alternative”. So they found one - or not:

The Bradley Foundation from Milwaukee has sent about $645,000 to the AAE
since 2008. Rosno said the foundation has given the AAE a grant to
create a Wisconsin chapter office. The Walton Foundation also has given
the association about $1.5 million since 2009.

Nothing says apolitical in public education like $2,000,000 grants from the etreme right wing Walton and Bradley Foundations.

But wait there is more:

It cost $180 per year to join and you get absolutely nothing for your money except some serious irony. See in the AAE they have actual highly paid bosses.

Members of those organizations also appear among the AAE Foundation’s
board of directors. Secretary and treasurer Becky Norton Dunlop is vice
president of the Heritage Foundation, and Alan P. Dye is the legal
counsel to ALEC.

Then there is this kicker that makes it all worthwhile:

Though the association calls itself nonpartisan, the group publicly
supports or opposes matters related to education or unionism if a
certain percentage of members vote to take a position, according to its
website.

So if a majority of their members approve of something, they advocate for it? I wonder who else does that?

By the way, can the Waltons give a fraction of the funds they give for vouchers to the people that work for them? Maybe then we wouldn't have to pay so many taxes for the Badgercare and food stamps that comes from paying poverty wages to Wal-Mart Associates.

I will not shop at Walmart for any reason. Not only do they fleece taxpayers by being one of the largest employers in the nation with large numbers of employees in entitlement programs Iin addition to generous tax breaks. But even more disgusting is that heir Alice Walton is a drunk driver, repeat offender, who KILLED a mother of 2. Alice Walton never served a minute in jail for her crime. Wal-mart is all about greed, their own entitlement, abuse of power and fleecing taxpayers.

The AAE went through every school district in WI with open records request for teacher's email addresses. We received emails through work email during our work time to promote their message. We have been discouraged to use work time or email for personal business, but selling this conservative crap on the tax payers time is acceptable?

To add to the other anonymous comment at 9:51AM, a number of School District Superintendents actually promoted this group to their teachers. Remember, the newly hired Wisconsin director for AAE is #1 Walker supporter (and paid pro-Walker shill on TV commercials during the recall) Kristi LaCroix who quit her teaching job in Kenosha in order to run the Wisconsin AAE affiliate. Bet her newest gig worked for the Koch/Walton folks pays a whole lot more than teaching English in Kenosha.